Roman Empire Dbq Analysis

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After about 250 years of hard work, the world's largest Empire fell into ruin. The Roman Empire lasted from approximately 50 BCE to 200 CE. At its peak, the Empire was about 2400 miles long taking control of all area surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. During its rule, the empire became very strong and complex featuring Gladiator fights for entertainment along with an army that couldn’t be matched by any other. Unfortunately, as all good things do, Rome met its end. Rome’s downfall was caused by its political instability, many social issues and weakening borders.

Rome’s constant change of power made the Empire politically unstable. Within a 50 year time period, Rome had a total of 22 emperors. Of them, only two survived to rule for six years and were then both assassinated. Most of the emperors only lived to rule over Rome for only a single year. (Doc A) Without a strong leader that the people could trust, the military lost its determination making it grow weaker as time passed on. Eventually, the men in the army became so out of shape that they stopped wearing their chest plates and other heavy pieces of armour. Without the extra protection, the Roman army became susceptible to bow and arrow attacks making them much more vulnerable. They also stopped using certain weapons and tools that they had been trained to fight with in the past. Without them, the military's tactics grew weaker and less advanced. (Doc B) After losing their edge, the Roman military slowly got pushed back causing the empire to lose land that they had fought so
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The constant fighting against raging barbarians made Rome lose much of its land. As the troops constantly fought, they grew tired and the borders were growing smaller over time. As the borders weakened, more and more of Rome was being conquered causing Rome to lose many troops and citizens. Aside from the constant fighting, many natural disasters killed of many

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